Sister Sage's Musings

Yeah, never thought I’d see the day I’d agree with dear Tasha, but she gave some good ideas on compromises to modify the long form census while at the same time, keeping it manditory:

So instead of axing the mandatory long-form census, why not revamp the questionnaire to remove questions of dubious value, or those deemed too invasive? Why not change the enforcement system to be less draconian? Replace the jail term with a fine, or create a list of acceptable exemptions, like those for another mandatory obligation: jury duty. If privacy is a concern, put in additional safeguards to reassure participants that their personal information will never be used against them.

Some good ideas. A good start.

Too bad it’s not that simple.

Too bad that the whole privacy or coercive thing isn’t really the issue. In fact, it’s a red herring.

If Steve really cared about the privacy of Canadians; if he really were passionate about the Canadian government staying out the private lives of Canadians, he wouldn’t be sneaking in such insidious bills like C-42, which gives Foreign Governments, ostensibly, the American Government access to any and all info they like at their disposal of any passenger on board airplanes flying in their airspace without even landing on their soil.

Speaking of airplane/airport security, John Baird, Steve’s prized pit-bull, wouldn’t have spent our tax money on body scans that can view the naked bodies of passengers; legalized government porn.

If Steve were really concerned about privacy, random searches of the citizens, and things like cops storming into homes without warrants during G20 week-end wouldn’t have occurred.

If truth be told, Steve and his cheerleaders love the police state; it’s part of his utopia.  G20 week-end proved this much. No privacy isn’t the issue at all.

I have to admit to have been on the fence with this whole keeping the long census form debacle.  Largely in part because I always believed that locking someone in jail for not filling out a census form was, well, (forgive the pun) senseless and harsh.   Kheirriddin, though, offers a good alternative with a fine instead of jail time. That, by far, sounds more reasonable.  Although, the coerciveness of the census is not high on Steve’s mind neither, not when insipid items on his tough on crime bills he wants to pass like minimum sentences for insipid things like posession of a marijuana joint.

Theoretically, I understand how these census forms would help governments shape policy and better help them maintain services and programs. In the practical sense, one has to wonder, particularly in recent years,  if the data compiled has simply been dismissed and the forms were simply going straight through the paper shredder or being used to line the PM’s bird cage or cat litter box or to paper train new puppies; you get the idea. I would say that whether or not Steve scraps the manditory census form or not; whether or not he provides a long census form to be filled out voluntarily is really irrelevent for a number of reasons.

1) Steve shapes policy by his own ideologies not by the data compiled by StatsCan.  He has his own vision of his utopic society and if let loose with a majority, by George! He will get it, come hell or high water, census form or not.

2) Steve plans to cut social programs anyway. Data from StatsCan or not. Again, he doesn’t care; no social programs and watching people suffer is all a part of his Utopia.

3) Contrary to what I’ve seen in various blogs and columns, Steve doesn’t give a rat’s ass about his ‘report card’.  Again, he only cares about pandering to the Evangelicals, Jewish groups, Bay Street and Big oil; not necessarily in that order.

No, as I’ve pointed out in my post earlier today, this is largely in part to derail Iggy’s bus tour which was starting to get some positive press reviews. This is also Steve’s ‘perfect storm’ to call that  fall election since thesenate passed Bill C-9, thus depriving Steve the pleasure.

And there’s more. The long Census form debacle is proving to serve as a marvelous distraction. More will concentrate on this debacle rather than the more important issues at hand like the Harpercons’ preventing  a parliamentary inquiry into what happened at the G20 protests, that 16 billion dollar boondoggle, purchasing F-35s and other assortment of war toys, his draining of the government coffers that would eventually lead to him cutting social programs.

As I’ve pointed out in my previous post, Steve will have no choice but to relent in the end as his friends like  the Christian Evangelicals and Jewish Groups want the mandatory long census form maintained. If Iggy doesn’t take the bait, as it would be  a terrible issue to go to an election with, I suspect Steve will simply engineer another crisis designed to have a similar effect.

Sorry, Tasha, it looks like there will be no rest for the wicked this summer.